The McLaughlins and O'Neills were
descended from a long line of Irish High Kings who trace their ancestry
to the fabled Niall 'of the Nine Hostages', who died in 505 A.D.
Nial's son Owen established the kingdom of Tirowen in present day county
Tryone and for centuries this dynastic line ruled the North of Ireland
from its royal seat at the Grianan of Aileach near Derry in Donegal.
Their kings were styled Kings of Aileach and later Lords of the Cinel
Eoghain by the Irish annalists, many of whom were High Kings of Ireland.
In the 10th century the Kings of Aileach moved their royal seat to
Tullahoge in Tyrone, the later coronation site of the O'Neill kings of
Tryone. The McLaughlins and O'Neills were the royal dynasty of
the tribe known as the northern Ui Neill, or descendants of Niall 'of
the Nine Hostages', whose progeny also included the O'Donnell Kings of
Tirconnell, the O Melaghlin Kings of Westmeath (the southern Ui Neill),
and the O'Connor Kings of Connacht in western Ireland.

Domnall 'of Armagh', the grandson of Nial
glundubh, the High King of Ireland, was the first to be styled "Ua
Neill" by the annalists and the later bearers of this famous
surname ruled the north of Ireland until its the final conquest by the
English in the 16th century. For several centuries the McLaughlins
and O'Neills were rivals for the kingship of Aileach. The sources
are unclear as to the exact descent of the McLaughlins. Some show
the McLaughlins descending from Domnall, the younger brother of Nial
glundubh (Clan Domhnall) ; others have them descend, like the O'Neills,
from Domnall 'of Armagh' (Clann Neill). The pedigree of the
O'Neills is equally obscure and only partially traceable in the annals
of Ireland.

Whatever their descent, the kingship of
Aileach or the north of Ireland was for centuries bitterly contested
between the rival families of McLaughlin and O'Neill. At first the
O'Neills held the upper hand. After the deaths of Flaitbhertach
'of the Pilgrim's Staff' Ua Neill and his son Aodh Athlaman, in 1036 and
1033 respectively, the McLaughlins dominated the kingship of Aileach for
the next 150 years, until Aedh 'the lazy youth' Ua Neill managed to
break into their monopoly of the kingship. The following years saw
a vicious escalation of hostilities between the two rival families,
culminating in the Battle of Caim Eirge in 1241 A.D. In this
bloody battle the forces of O'Neill and O'Donnell combined to defeat the
McLaughlins, in the process slaying most of their derbfine or royal
line. The O'Neills thereafter held the uncontested right to the
kingship of the north of Ireland while their kinsmen the McLaughlins
gradually sank into obscurity on the political scene in northern
Ireland.

Two of the MacLochlainns were styled High
Kings of Ireland by the annalists. The first was Domnall
MacLochlainn (+ 1122) , the son of Ardgar. His grandson
Muirchertach MacLochlainn (+1166) was also reckoned a High King by the
annalists, although with opposition. His name is omitted entirely
from some of the later kingship lists in Irish manuscripts.

The MacLochlainns were descended from an
ancestor named Lochlan, probably the son of a Norse mother. The
personal name Lochlan is a curious one which first appears in history in
the line of the O'Loughlins of Co. Clare, followed shortly thereafter by
the Lochlan in the line of the McLaughlins of northern Ireland
circa 1023 A.D.. In the annals of Ireland the home of the Norse
invaders of Ireland was invariably referred to as Lochlaind or Lochlan.
Marstrander believed the name Lochlan was a corruption of one of
the districts in Norway from which the Norse invaders of Ireland
originated. O Corrain believes Lochlan instead referred to the
territory of the Norse in Innsi Gall in the western Isles of Scotland.
In time the name Lochlan was adopted by the native Irish as a personal
name which became quite popular in both Ireland and the Highlands of
Scotland. Other Irish and Scottish clans have similar Norse names
in their pedigrees. Iomhair (Ivor) and Ragnaill, both Norse names,
appear prominently in the pedigree of the O Cathains of Londonderry
County, probably indicating intermarriage with the Norse in this family
was well.

The Anradan Kindred

As noted above the O'Neills descend from Flaithbertach 'of the Pilgrim's
Staff', the King of Aileach, who made a pilgrimage to Rome and died in
Ireland in 1036 A.D. His son Aedh Athlaman was the King of Aileach
in his absence, and died before his father in 1033 A.D. Aedh is
said to have had two sons, Domnall an trogdam ('the young oxe') and
Anradan. From Domnall descend the O'Neills, Kings of Tyrone, and
from Anradan, descend the Argyle clans of MacSweeney, Maclachlan, Lamont
and MacEwen of Otter. Anradan is said to have settled in Scotland
where he received lands after some
unspecifed campaign. Unfortunately this descent for both the
O'Neills and the Anradan kindred in Scotland is untraceable in the
annals of Ireland. No sons of Aedh Athlamanh are mentioned by the
Irish annalists, no doubt because their kinsmen, the McLaughlins,
monopolised the kingship of Aileach for nearly 150 years after the death
of Flaithbertach 'of the Pilgrim's Staff.' According to the
traditional pedigrees of the Anradan kindred in Scotland, Anradan had a
son named Aedh or Hugh, nicknamed according to some sources, Aedh Alainn
or Hugh 'the splendid', who according to Skene, died in Ireland in 1047
A.D. But there isn't a trace of this Aedh Alainn in the Irish
annals and Skene did not reveal his sources, leaving us with no proof of
his assertion. This Aedh Alainn is simply called Buirche in some
of the earlier pedigrees, or even Aedh Alainn an buirche in later
versions.

The Scots in Ireland

The Norman invasion of Ireland in 1177 set off a chain of events
culminating in several disastrous defeats for the native Irish
chieftains and the subsequent importation of foreign mercenaries from
Scotland, employed by the Irish chiefs to combat the superior arms of
the Norman knights. These mercenaries were called "galloglach"
by the Irish annalists, or "foreign fighters", heavily-armed,
determined warriors armed with the famous Scot battle axe, who proved to
be an equal match to the similarly equipped Normans. The
MacSweeneys, from Castle Sween in Argyle, made their first appearance in
Ireland in the 12th century and soon afterwards were employed by the
O'Donnell Kings of Donegal as gallowglasses. By the early 14th
century they had obtained the territory of Fanad in Donegal, and later
branches spread into other parts of Donegal and some of the Irish
territories in Munster and Connacht. The Lamonts, a related clan
in Argyle, also settled in Connacht as gallowglasses and are named
MacBuirch in the annals of Ireland. Traditional Irish pedigree
sources contain pedigrees for the Maclachlans of Argyle, another related
clan, but there is no trace of them in the Irish annals and it is
unknown whether they too settled in Ireland as gallowglasses.

In addition to their employment of
Scottish gallowglasses, there were close family and political ties
between leading Irish families and the Scottish clans in the western
Isles and the Highlands of Scotland. Domnall oge O'Donnell married
first a MacSweeney and later a MacDonald and several later O'Donnells
bear the nickname "albanach", indicating they were fostered in
Scotland, probably among the MacDonalds. Even prior to the employment in
Donegal of gallowglasses, the Irish annals record the campaigns of
several Scottish clans in alliance with the O'Donnells, most notably the
MacDonalds.

The Descent of the Anradan kindred

The traditional pedigrees in Irish manuscript uniformly make Anradan a
son of Aedh Athlaman in the line of the O'Neills of Ulster. But a
number of scholars over the years have challenged this descent,
believing instead that the Irish seanachies simply faked a pedigree for
the MacSweeneys of Donegal, artificially linking them to the line of the
O'Neills in the person of Anradan. Their reason for doing so was
to give the MacSweeneys an "official" political standing in
Ireland with a pedigree from the Ui Neill, the dominant tribe in the
north of Ireland, in an era in which pedigrees functioned as deeds to
land or rights to rule. In the Irish genealogical tradition only
the major landholding freeholder families who were chieftains of
specific territories have their descent traced in the genealogical
manuscripts. The great majority of minor families are ignored
completely by the seanachies; their pedigrees are not traced at all or
at best partially by the Irish seanachies.

But once the MacSweeneys gained territory
in Donegal, the Irish seanachies began recording their pedigree, which
first appears in the Book of Ballymote circa 1390 A.D. This
pedigree has the MacSweeneys descend from Anrathan, the son of Aedh
Athlaman, through Aedh Alainn called an Buirche. His son was
Suibhne, probably the Suibhne roe of Scottish legend who is said to have
built Castle Sween in Kintire, Scotland.

The pedigree of the Anradan kindred in Scotland as traced in Irish
manuscript is plausible, as D.W. Sellars demonstrated in his article on
the families. Although documentation is lacking, Sellars did
demonstate effectively that Anradan could have been the son of Aedh
Athlamanh, based on the dating of the individuals in the pedigrees.
But there is a curious pedigree buried in the infamous Gaelic MS.of 1467
discovered by Skene which contradicts the traditional descent of the
Anradan kindred in Scotland. This collection of Scottish pedigrees
is the only surviving genealogical manuscript in Scotland which traces
the descent of the Highland clans and was embraced enthusiastically by
Skene in his seminal work, "The Highland Clans."

In this manuscript is a pedigree of the Lamonts, in a portion of the
manuscript described by Skene as unreadable in his initial transcription
for the Iona Club, but later subjected to a chemical treatment which
brought out the writing enough to be deciphered. The pedigree is
entitled "genelach Clan Ladus" which despite its heading is
nothing less than a pedigree for the Lamonts, in the Irish tradition one
of the Anradan kindred. This pedigree has the Lamonts descend from
Niallgusa of Lochaber, the ancestor of the MacDonalds and MacDougals of
Loarn and the western Isles of Scotland. Here Anradan is made a
son of "Gilleabeirt rig eilan Sidir", or Gilbert, king of the
western isles (the Sudreys). As in the Irish versions his son his
named Buirc.

In the same manuscript, the Maclachlans,
another of the Anradan kindred, are described as descendants of Niall
naoigiallaigh, or Nial 'of the Nine Hostages'. Their pedigree ends
with "Anradan conerguid clanna Niel nai giall" which is
clearly a reference to the Irish tradition linking Anradan to the line
of the Ui Neill in northern Ireland. Skene initially mistranslated
this section to read "where Anradan meets with Clan Neill,"
which many took as a reference to the MacNeills of Barra and Gigha.
This is a mistake which has been perpetuated over the years in Scottish
clan histories and is still repeated endlessly today. The
MacNeills of Barra and Gigha never were apart of the Anradan kindred in
any Irish or Scottish manuscript. It is curious to find two
conflicting pedigrees for Anradan in the same manuscript; but the scribe
was evidently a poor one (if Skene's transcription is accurate, he ran
the name Aedh Alainn together as Dedalainn in the MS). In addition, the
heading "Clan Ladus" may have mislead the scribe to believe
some other family was being traced in the pedigree of the Lamonts.
Or he may have been copying between both Irish and Scottish source
manuscripts and inadvertantly included an older Scottish pedigree for
the Lamonts which predated the Irish version in the Book of Ballymote.

In the same manuscript we also find a pedigree for the MacEwens of
Otter. In it Anradan is described as the "Lord of Badenoch,"
a district to the west of Argyle in Scotland and a curious place to find
a wandering Ua Neill prince far from the western coasts of Scotland.
The pedigree of the Maclachlans states Giollapadraic, the father of
Lachlan Mor, eponym of the family, was from the district of Atholl (Gillepadruic.i.
Athochlach), again to the west of Argyle. There is also a pedigree
in the same manuscript for an unidentified Clan Sorley also said to be
descended from "Dunsleibe ic B" or "Dunsleibe son of
Buirc". Dunsleibe was the ancestor of the MacSweeneys in both
the Irish and Scottish traditions.

Skene in his "Highland Clans"
confusingly describes these families in descent from Anradan as the Siol
Gillveray." Siol Gilverary is here a reference to Gilbert,
king of the western isles in the Lamont pedigree, and not to the
well-known MacGilverary family in Scotland. In later works he
seems to have rejected this pedigree of the Lamonts in descent from
Gilbert, king of the western isles, in favor of the more common Irish
descent from the O'Neills of northern Ireland. His "Celtic
Scotland" collection of Irish pedigrees contains only the Irish
tradition for the descent of the Anradan kindred and elsewhere he states
that he has come to believe the Irish version is the more believable of
the two conflicting versions.

Oral Tradition

The Marquis of Lorne, in "Adventures in Legend, being the Last
Historic Legends of the Western Highlands" relates a legend in
which two brothers, Dougal (ancestor of the MacDougals) and Domnall
(ancestor of the MacDonalds) race each other in boats to the shore of
Loarn, having agreed that the first to reach shore would be lord of that
territory. As they neared the shore Dugald cut off his hand and
flung it ashore, thus arriving before his brother Domnall, who
consequently was forced to go further North in search of a territory of
his own. The legend goes on to state that there were two other
brothers as well, Ranald and Lochlan, the last of whom went to Cowal and
married the daughter of Lamont, thus obtaining the territory of
Strathlachlan.

This highland legend indicates that the Maclachlans, one of the Anradan
kindred, were linked in popular tradition to the stock of the MacDonalds,
as the pedigree of the Lamonts indicates in the Gaelic MS. Of 1457.

But the Marquis also relates another legend current in his day in the
highlands involving a certain Fearchar, a man said to be descended from
the Irish Nial 'of the Nine Hostages', "who had a house at Eridin,
a townland near the castle of Arconnel, in Lochow." This
Fearchar is undoubtedly the Ferchair son of Duinsleibe in the pedigree
of the Lamonts and MacSweeneys, in the Irish tradition said to be a
descendant of Anradan. This legend effectively nullifies the
legend of the four brothers quoted previously because the MacDonalds are
said to descend from Colla Uais, of the Airgialla in Ireland, and could
not be described in any sense as a descendant of Niall 'of the Nine
Hostages.'

Conclusion

Were the Anrdadan kindred in Scotland descended from the O'Neills in
northern Ireland as the Irish tradition insists? Or were they
instead descended from the same stock as the MacDonalds and MacDougals
as indicated by the Gaelic MS. Of 1467? The sources are
contradictory which indicates the survival of two rival traditions in
Scotland, which fact alone should induce caution in those investigating
the history of the Anradan kindred in Scotland. Unfortunately
documentation is lacking and we will probably never discover the truth
with any certainty. The answer, if there is one, is lost in the mists of
time, as is sadly the case for so many Irish and Scottish families. If
there is one thing we can be sure of, however, it is that the Irish and
the Scots were essentially the same race, with a common heritage and
close political and familial ties, whether or not we can trust the
claims of the Irish seanachies as to the descent of individual families.

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